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so many Cs

Hello experts, Please tell me what is difference between C, C++, VC++ and C#. What are the application areas of each of these. or could you please tell me names of website where can i find introduction to each of these. basically i need the history, creator's name, application area etc. of each of these.
thanks.
sandeep.

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C is a language that was developed back in the 1980's and is fairly widely used. it is genrally NOT considered to be Object-Oriented.

C++ and VC++ (VC++ is Visual C++ and in Microsoft's version of C++) is an Object-oriented 'superset' of C---It is based on C, with a number of additional features and capabilities (hence the ++ in the name).

C# is a New language, created by Microsoft, as a component of Visual Studio.NET, to act as a sort of bridge between C/C++ and Visual Basic. C# uses a SYNTAX which is very simialr to C/C++, but has additional features that are closely related to Visual Basic.

C was developed at Bell Labs, by Kernighan and Ritchie:

The history of the language is traced in ``The Development of the C Language'', from HOPL II, 1993: browsable, or printable PostScript or PDF. This and other historical material, including early manuals and compilers, is available at Dennis Ritchie's home page, while Brian Kernighan's home page collects pointers to his work on C and diverse other languages and systems.

I think that about sums it up, good job! One could think of Kernighan as being the father (where C is really having roots in prior languages) and the others from MS as johnny-come-latelies, bending it to their own philosophy of proprietary. Note perl and jave also rooted in C, and VC really comes from the success of VB and Windows more so than of MS with C.

One C derivative not mentioned yet is the obscure Objective-C, which lost out to C++ in the race for object oriented C. I don't know who created it.

No specific person is identified with VC++ or C# because it was a large team rather than one or two individuals.
I think you might be able to find the names of the initiators of the MFC library if you look around the web, but that one effectively predates VC++ and isn't a language on its own.

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CleanupPingCommented: 2003-09-28

soodsandeep:
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